Several were killed and dozens injured

Bomb Blast Rocks Beirut

A Lebanese man carries an injured woman at the scene of an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon on Dec. 27, 2013. A strong explosion has shaken the Lebanese capital, sending black smoke billowing from the center of Beirut. The blast went off a few hundred yards from the government headquarters and parliament building.

Bilal Hussein/AP Photo

Bomb Blast Rocks Beirut

A Lebanese man carries an injured woman at the scene of an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon on Dec. 27, 2013. A strong explosion has shaken the Lebanese capital, sending black smoke billowing from the center of Beirut. The blast went off a few hundred yards from the government headquarters and parliament building.

Bilal Hussein/AP Photo

Bomb Blast Rocks Beirut

Lebanese forensic experts inspect the scene of a huge car bomb explosion that rocked central Beirut on December 27, 2013. Ex-premier Saad Hariri's top aide Mohammad Shatah and four other people were killed in the early morning car bomb explosion in the heart of Beirut and more than 50 were wounded, the state news agency NNA said.

Patrick Baz.AFP/Getty Images

Bomb Blast Rocks Beirut

A general view from above shows Lebanese security forces and firefighters at the scene of a huge car bomb explosion that rocked central Beirut on December 27, 2013, killing Mohamed Chatah, former finance minister and adviser to Lebanese ex-premier Saad Hariri, along with at least four others, according to initial reports from the Lebanese capital.

STR/AFP/Getty Images

Bomb Blast Rocks Beirut

Lebanese security forces arrive on the scene following a car bomb explosion that rocked central Beirut on December 27, 2013. The huge explosion killed Mohamed Chatah, former finance minister and adviser to Lebanese ex-premier Saad Hariri, and left at least five people dead and dozens injured, reports and correspondents said.

AFP/Getty Images

Bomb Blast Rocks Beirut

Forensic evidence and security forces inspect the site of the blast, which appears to have targeted former Finance Minister Mohammed Shatah on December 27, 2013 in Beirut, Lebanon. Six people were killed and 70 others injured as a blast struck central Beirut as Shateh's convoy was passing.

Bilal Jawich/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Bomb Blast Rocks Beirut

People clean up a shop aftermath a blast, which targeted former Finance Minister Mohammed Shatah on December 27, 2013 in Beirut, Lebanon. Six people were killed and 70 others injured as a blast struck central Beirut as Shateh's convoy was passing.

Bilal Jawich/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Bomb Blast Rocks Beirut

Forensic evidence and security forces inspect the site of the blast, which appears to have targeted former Finance Minister Mohammed Shatah on December 27, 2013 in Beirut, Lebanon. Former Lebanese Finance Minister Mohamed Shateh, a political adviser to former premier Saad Hariri, was killed in a deadly blast in the Lebanese capital.

Bilal Jawich/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Bomb Blast Rocks Beirut

Workers clean shattered glass from broken windows at a damaged business center, at the scene of an explosion, in central Beirut, Lebanon on Dec. 27, 2013.

Hussein Malla/AP Photo

Bomb Blast Rocks Beirut

Lebanese army investigators in white coveralls inspect the scene of an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon on Dec. 27, 2013. A powerful car bomb tore through a business district in the center of the Lebanese capital, killing Mohammed Chatah, a prominent pro-Western politician, and at least five other people.